No evidence for impaired solitary bee fitness following pre-flowering sulfoxaflor application alone or in combination with a common fungicide in a semi-field experiment.

Pesticide exposure is considered a major driver of pollinator decline and the use of neonicotinoid insecticides has been restricted by regulatory authorities due to their risks for pollinators. Impacts of new alternative sulfoximine-based compounds on solitary bees and their potential interactive effects with other commonly applied pesticides in agriculture remain unclear. Here, we conducted a highly replicated full-factorial semi-field experiment with the solitary bee Osmia bicornis, an important pollinator of crops and wild plants in Europe, and Phacelia tanacetifolia as a model crop. We show that spray applications of the insecticide sulfoxaflor (product Closer) and the fungicide azoxystrobin (product Amistar), both alone and combined, had no significant negative impacts on adult female survival or the production, mortality, sex ratio and body size of offspring when sulfoxaflor was applied five days before crop flowering. Our results indicate that for O. bicornis (1) the risk of adverse impacts of sulfoxaflor (Closer) on fitness is small when applied at least five days before crop flowering and (2) that azoxystrobin (Amistar) has a low potential of exacerbating sulfoxaflor effects under field-realistic conditions.

Flowering resources modulate the sensitivity of bumblebees to a common fungicide.

Bees are exposed to various stressors, including pesticides and lack of flowering resources. Despite potential interactions between these stressors, the impacts of pesticides on bees are generally assumed to be consistent across bee-attractive crops, and regulatory risk assessments of pesticides neglect interactions with flowering resources. Furthermore, impacts of fungicides on bees are rarely examined in peer-reviewed studies, although these are often the pesticides that bees are most exposed to. In a full-factorial semi-field experiment with 39 large flight cages, we assessed the single and combined impacts of the globally used azoxystrobin-based fungicide Amistar® and three types of flowering resources (Phacelia, buckwheat, and a floral mix) on Bombus terrestris colonies. Although Amistar is classified as bee-safe, Amistar exposure through Phacelia monocultures reduced adult worker body mass and colony growth (including a 55% decline in workers and an 88% decline in males), while the fungicide had no impact on colonies in buckwheat or the floral mix cages. Furthermore, buckwheat monocultures hampered survival and fecundity irrespective of fungicide exposure. This shows that bumblebees require access to complementary flowering species to gain both fitness and fungicide tolerance and that Amistar impacts are flowering resource-dependent. Our findings call for further research on how different flowering plants affect bees and their pesticide tolerance to improve guidelines for regulatory pesticide risk assessments and inform the choice of plants that are cultivated to safeguard pollinators.

Fungicide and insecticide exposure adversely impacts bumblebees and pollination services under semi-field conditions.

Sulfoximines, the next generation systemic insecticides developed to replace neonicotinoids, have been shown to negatively impact pollinator development and reproduction. However, field-realistic studies on sulfoximines are few and consequences on pollination services unexplored. Moreover, the impacts of other agrochemicals such as fungicides, and their combined effects with insecticides remain poorly investigated. Here, we show in a full factorial semi-field experiment that spray applications of both the product Closer containing the insecticide sulfoxaflor and the product Amistar containing the fungicide azoxystrobin, negatively affected the individual foraging performance of bumblebees (Bombus terrestris). Insecticide exposure further reduced colony growth and size whereas fungicide exposure decreased pollen deposition. We found indications for resource limitation that might have exacerbated pesticide effects on bumblebee colonies. Our work demonstrates that field-realistic exposure to sulfoxaflor can adversely impact bumblebees and that applications before bloom may be insufficient as a mitigation measure to prevent its negative impacts on pollinators. Moreover, fungicide use during bloom could reduce bumblebee foraging performance and pollination services.

Temporal and Spatial Genetic Population Structure of Cryphonectria parasitica and Its Associated Hypovirus Across an Invasive Range of Chestnut Blight in Europe.

Chestnut blight has spread throughout Europe since the introduction of its causal agent, Cryphonectria parasitica, >70 years ago. In our study, we analyzed the diversity of vegetative compatibility (vc) and microsatellite genotypes of C. parasitica, as well as sequence diversity of Cryphonectria hypovirus 1 (CHV1) in six populations from Switzerland, Croatia, and North Macedonia. Resampling of local populations that were already investigated more than a decade ago allowed us to analyze the spatial and temporal population structure across an invasive range of the pathogen in Europe. Regardless of which genetic marker was used, the >60-year-old Swiss and Croatian populations had high population diversity, whereas more recent North Macedonian populations were mostly clonal. These diversity differences between the investigated populations remained stable over time. A high diversity of CHV1 was observed in all three countries, with North Macedonian strains forming a separate cluster from strains obtained in other countries. No correlation between vc diversity and CHV1 prevalence was observed, suggesting a well-established and maintained natural hypovirulence in all countries, further corroborated by an observed increase in genetic diversity of Croatian C. parasitica populations over time, without collapse of CHV1 prevalence.